1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk loading device for loading/unloading an optical disk for a recording/reproduction device which records/reproduces information on/from the optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical disks have been widely used as audio disks, video disks, and data memory devices for computers.
Optical disks include rewritable disks cased in cartridges mainly used for data storage and reproduction-only naked disks such as music CDs and CD-ROMs. With the advance of multimedia technology, both the digitization of AV apparatuses and the enhancement of the AV functions of computers are in progress simultaneously. To meet this progress, optical disks which are widely applicable to recording/reproduction of a variety of information regardless whether they are for AV apparatuses or for computers have been requested.
Also, with the increasing request for size reduction of personal computers as well as AV apparatuses, the recording/reproduction devices for optical disks are desired to be made thinner.
In short, a recording/reproduction device for an optical disk, which is thin and applicable to various forms of media has been strongly requested.
Conventionally, however, since the loading method is different between disks incorporated in cartridges and naked disks, individual, exclusive disk loading devices for the cartridges and the naked disks are required.